Space Shuttle Off To A Princely Start

June 18, 1985|By United Press International.

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. — The space shuttle Discovery carried a Saudi prince, a Frenchman, five Americans and cargo from four nations into orbit Monday, and eight hours later the crew launched Mexico`s first communications satellite.

It was a flawless start for America`s 18th shuttle mission, the first manned by a crew from three countries.

Prince Sultan Salman Saud, 28, a nephew of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, became the first Arab in space and wasted little time in letting mission controllers know how he felt.

``Just great!`` Saud exclaimed. ``The view is fantastic from here, and we wish you were with us.``

NASA astronauts John Fabian, 46, and Shannon Lucid, 42, were at the controls when the Mexican Morelos satellite was spun like a top and pushed out of the ship`s open cargo bay with its bluish solar panels glittering in the sunlight.

``It`s off on time,`` said Fabian after the drum-shaped satellite left Discovery at 2:38 p.m. Chicago time while the ship was crossing the equator 219 miles above the Pacific. It was the 16th communications satellite launched from a shuttle.

A rocket fired 45 minutes later to push the satellite toward a stationary orbit 22,300 miles high. The rocket was similar to two that failed in February, 1984, which set the stage for last November`s dramatic salvage mission.

Morelos is designed to provide television and other communications services to the remotest parts of Mexico. Television programming will originate from at least 12 cities.

``It was one of the smoothest ones we`ve had in a long time,`` said Flight Director Cleon Lacefield of the final countdown and Discovery`s climb into space.

The Mexican satellite was one of three radio-relay stations carried into orbit for a total fee of $30 million.

The astronauts plan to launch a satellite Tuesday to link 22 Arab nations that belong to the Arab Satellite Communications Organization. On Wednesday, the fliers will deploy the third of AT&T`s Telstar satellites.

Once all the paying cargo has been dropped off in orbit, the crew will use Discovery`s robot arm to deploy a NASA-built astronomical satellite called Spartan. It will be released Thursday and retrieved Saturday for return to Earth with recordings of X-ray observations from the center of the Milky Way. In addition to the satellites, Discovery carried three small West German packages of experiments. Also aboard is a special mirror that will be mounted on a window Wednesday to see whether a low-powered laser beamed from Hawaii can track the ship. This is the first space experiment in President Reagan`s

Baudry is a research scientist aboard Discovery and is operating two French experiments to explore how the human body adapts to weightlessness.

Saud was flying primarily to observe the launch of the Arab satallite. He also will take photographs of his country, conduct an experiment to see whether Saudi oil and water mix in weightlessness, and will serve as a test subject for some of Baudry`s experiments.